Closer
by The Mysterious Blind Bandit
Summary: Private moments can be hard to come by when you're a magical guardian of the Solar System, no matter the century. Rei/Minako, Pluto/Serenity.


Note: Promptfic for crunchbuttsteak's Reinako Same Prompt Fic Party. Rei/Minako, but featuring what feels like every standard senshi ship under the sun, including Pluto/Queen Serenity, Haruka/Michiru, mentions of Ami/Makoto and Chibiusa/Hotaru. Mostly just silly fluff, and various people making out in closets.  
>Prompt: It can never happen again.<p>

* * *

><p>The damned meeting was taking forever and Pluto was very temptingly sitting right across the table from her. Venus had to fight down a sudden intense urge to jump to her feet and accuse the quiet and ever-secretive Time Guardian of abusing her considerable powers to make time flow as slowly as it could, short of actually stopping.<p>

It would be understandable, of course. If it were her standing guard in a pocket dimension with very few opportunities to leave her post, Venus was certain she'd want to prolong what excursions she got as much as possible. Of course, there was also the matter of one of the worst-kept secrets in court. It was obvious even without the powers granted to her as the self-styled Goddess of Love, and, really, all one needed to be able to tell what was going on between _those_ two was a working pair of eyes.

Now that she thought about it, Pluto_ had_ been unusually fidgety all day. Perhaps something was truly wrong with the timestream? But surely, if there was imminent danger, she would have warned them all? For all her remoteness and mysteriousness, Pluto was one of the most trustworthy and reliable people Venus knew.

As the ambassador from Jupiter droned on, Venus tried to keep her bored squirming as discrete as possible – but the chairs were so annoyingly hard and uncomfortable, probably to prevent people from actually falling asleep during situations like these. Why the senshi were required by the Queen to stay even during the agricultural section of the monthly reports was utterly beyond Venus' comprehension.

She turned her gaze from Pluto making what she probably thought were subtle and unnoticed doe eyes at the Queen, and instead focused on something far more to her taste.

Mars was fully focused on the current speaker – still the awful droning woman from Jupiter, she was truly unbelievable – and sometimes it seemed to Venus the fabled senshi of flames did everything in her life with the same incredible, burning intensity. It was amazing, how she could keep it up at such a constant level.

Venus loved it.

She loved how the flames somehow held contained in Mars' elegant frame burned even brighter when she was around. She loved finding new ways of making Mars set them free.

A focused, intent, collected Mars was a vision of supremely impressive and imposing control, but relaxed and unrestrained and caught in the heat of the moment she was something else entirely, and most of all Venus loved that she was the lucky one who got to see Mars that way.

She shook herself out of her reverie. These thoughts were very helpful with whiling away the time, but they were ultimately harmful to her patience. She had what passed for an afternoon off coming up and she'd made _very_ sure hers and Mars' schedules synced up this week, as was perfectly within her rights and powers as the commander of the guard.

The Queen rose, then, to Venus' great gratitude and admittedly slight surprise, to call the meeting to a close. Venus decided looking a gift horse in the mouth was an altogether bad idea, and happily made her way over to the other side of the council chamber, and to Sailor Mars.

Mars was currently deep in conversation with one of the main agricultural advisors, discussing, for some reason quite unfathomable to Venus, Jovian irrigation methods. She reached over to gently tap Mars on the shoulder, and, once she was sure she had her attention, leaned to whisper a barely-there _Follow me_ in her ear.

"Good day, counsellor," Venus acknowledged with a slight nod at the man, then strolled off towards the exit, turning left to wait in a much emptier hallway.

Mars was by her side soon enough, exactly as expected, and Venus could do nothing but smile as she felt fingers gently but insistently entwine with her own.

"Our afternoon off begins now, Mars," Venus accompanied the words with her best attempt at a scandalous wink, "I hope you've made interesting plans for us."

"I don't want to waste a single moment."

"Neither do I, of course-"

"Wait, Venus," Mars stopped her, tone and expression shifting into seriousness, "that wasn't me."

"Then who was it?" The question went unanswered as both of them froze, listening for any unusual sounds. The voice wafted to them again, from somewhere very close by, sounding strangely muffled.

"I've missed you so much. Can't you stay longer?"

It was none other than the young Queen herself, and it was coming from-

Venus raised her hand and politely knocked on the door of the storage closet not two paces from where the two of them had been standing. Some shuffling could be heard from within, but no response. Venus knocked again, then spoke quietly, "It's Venus and Mars, Your Majesty. We suggest a change of venue."

A moment later, the closet door opened form inside, to reveal a Sailor Pluto looking even more uncomfortable than she usually did when among people, and a somewhat distressed looking Queen Serenity peeking out from behind her.

"Excuse me, please," Pluto mumbled, then pushed between Mars and Venus and made a hasty turn around the closest corner. When Venus peeked over, she was gone without a trace.

"We're truly sorry, Your Majesty," Mars began, sounding somewhat contrite, "but you must understand-"

"Oh, no, this is all my fault, please don't berate yourselves. I was acting in a most unbecoming and foolish manner. Thank you both for bringing me to my senses." Serenity was obviously genuinely upset and angry with herself, no matter how she tried to hide it behind a mask of remote politeness.

"Would you allow us to escort you back to your chambers now, Your Majesty?" Mars, again, trying to bring the whole thing to an express close.

"Yes, please. I was just about to head there."

The walk down the palace corridors was short yet awkward and strangely tense, and both senshi could sense that being caught in the middle of such frivolous displays of humanity deeply embarrassed the still young Queen.

"Here we are, Your Majesty," Venus announced at the door to the royal suite, somewhat relieved – but with the need to defuse the uncomfortable situation before it could start to fester still pressing down on her.

"Thank you, Venus, Mars," the Queen spoke curtly and officially, her entire posture noticeably tense, "you're dismissed. I'm sorry to have intruded on your free time like this, I give you little enough of it as it is."

"It was nothing, Your Majesty. A few minutes' walk we would have taken anyway. Oh, that reminds me," Venus allowed a small smile to slip onto her face, "will Sailor Pluto be staying for an extra day? I'll pass it on to the staff to prepare quarters for her."

"No!" the word escaped the Queen rather more loudly than she'd probably intended, and Venus carefully committed to memory the look of what could only be described as mortification on her normally composed face. "No. There won't be any need for additional quarters. Thank you, Venus."

"Very well, Your Majesty. I'll let the cooks know to send over a double breakfast."

The second jab had the Queen finally smiling and at after long last at least somewhat relaxed.

"You're not letting me forget this that easily, are you?"

"Of course not, my Queen," Venus grinned, "somebody has to keep you on your toes."

"And who better to do it than the leader of my personal guard, hmm? Very well. Now go, be on your way, the both of you, we're done here. I know how much you love the report meetings."

Venus made to leave after a quick bow, but the Queen's voice stopped her at the door.

"I meant it, you know," Venus turned to face her, only to meet with an honest expression of gratitude, "You always know just what to say. Enjoy yourselves, you two."

"It's a talent," Venus smiled back, "and we most certainly will."

—

Although the waiting was driving her up the wall, Minako put in a herculean effort to keep as quiet and still as possible. Rei was bound to pass by here on her way to the bathroom, it was only a matter of time, and Minako had to be ready for the perfect ambush.

A few more minutes ticked by, during which the sounds of revelry coming from down the hallway never wavered. Soon enough, Minako's ears picked up on the soft thump-thump of socked feet on the wooden floor – unmistakeably the exact pair she'd been waiting for, in fact.

A moment later, her hand snaked out of the dark corner to close firmly around Rei's left wrist and yank her back, right into Minako's waiting arms and a very eager, impatient kiss.

"Happy birthday, Rei," she breathed lightly once they'd finally parted for longer than a second.

"I was wondering where you'd gone off to. I should have known you were up to no good."

"No good? Oh, I'll show you just how good I can be, birthday girl."

Rei squirmed. _Good_.

"Let's just find a nice, secluded corner," Minako continued, "and then…" the fingers trailing suggestively up Rei's arm and leaving goosebumps in their wake spoke volumes. But Rei broke out of the mood suddenly, frowning.

"Corner? Minako, we're in my _house_. We can just go to my room."

"And where's the fun in that? C'mon, Rei, it's your birthday, time to live a little, spice things up!"

Rei bit her lip – rather adorably, in Minako's opinion – and finally made up her mind, taking Minako by the hand and leading her straight to the main broom closet, the largest and roomiest one in the shrine.

"I like the way you think," Minako murmured appreciatively, grinning ear to ear, "there's hope for you yet."

"Shut up, Minako," Rei almost-growled, and leaned in for another kiss, reaching for the closet door with the hand that wasn't busy being tangled in Minako's hair.

The door slid open, only for the both of them to come face-to-face with a rather owlishly blinking Haruka – who, upon closer inspection, had lost her jacket somewhere, and whose pants were currently tangled around her ankles. Her face was growing red at an alarming rate, and a fascinating choking sound was coming from her throat.

Michiru glided into view then, from who knew where, perfectly composed and without a hair out of place. "Excuse us, please," she supplied in the same tone she might use to ask a dining partner to pass the sauce, then calmly reached over and slid the door shut again.

Both Rei and Minako could do nothing but gape.

"That was certainly – well."

A memory suddenly sparked in Minako's mind, one of those strange recollections she knew were not only older than her, but predated a significant chunk of the history of the human race. "Do you remember when Pluto-"

"Oh, yes. Do I ever. I guess we should just… avoid closets while the others are around, so it can never happen again? I've seen more of some people than I _ever_ wanted to see."

"I suppose you're right," Minako sighed, as if a great hardship had been thrust upon her, "we'll just have to go and use your nice, comfortable, quiet, private, _boring_ room. What a tragic waste of youth!"

Rei's response was just to kiss her, and pull her along, away from whatever was going on in the very occupied broom closet.

—

She'd been gone far, far too long.

Of course, she'd never wanted to leave in the first place. Diplomatic missions to other star systems and planets were most definitely not the concern of the commander of the ruling monarch's personal guard, and yet a few words from Serenity and here she was, almost six months later, eagerly awaiting her ship to be done with the endless docking procedures Crystal Tokyo imposed on everyone - probably Endymion's idea, the whole miserable thing.

The moment the hatch opened, Minako was on the walkway, making her way to the one familiar face in the crowd-turned-welcoming committee.

She greeted Rei with a searing kiss, and zero compunction about who saw them. Nobody knew who they really were, after all - not yet, at least. With no knowledge of how long the blessed anonymity (of sorts, in her case) would last, Minako was determined to make the very most of it. So, wasting none of their potentially limited time, she wholeheartedly applied herself to her current task - until Rei finally pried her off.

"Minako, stop! Let me _breathe_."

"I know, I know, leave some for later."

"That's not what I mea- _Minako._"

"Fine," Minako sighed, full of overblown despondency, "I missed you, too, grumpy pants."

Rei just shook her head and held out her arm for Minako to take, which she of course gladly did, flip-flopping right back into bouncy cheer.

"So, what have I missed?" Minako inquired, as they casually made their way towards the centre of the city and the shining beacon of the Crystal Palace.

"Oh, some excitement over Hotaru and Chibiusa's first 'official' date. Mostly fun at Haruka's expense, of course. She swore she'd put through the wringer anybody who dared to attempt dating her precious little daughter, but she can't exactly threaten the future queen of the planet now, can she?"

"Mhm," Minako hummed in amused agreement, "you know, I'd love to see her try to pull her long-promised 'strict overprotective papa' shtick now, I really would."

"Yeah, well, her and His Royal Highness are on the way to becoming the closest of commiserating drinking buddies."

"Ah, the joys of teenage daughters. Not that we'd know much of those."

"Uhm," Rei stopped to clear her throat and Minako found apprehension suddenly creeping up her spine, "you wouldn't want to… change that anytime soon, would you?"

_Oh no._

"I… well, I love you very much Rei," Minako stammered, "but I'm… just getting used to this life we've built - and are_ still_ building, and with all of my responsibilities - and yours, and the ones we share - I don't think it would be…"

"Oh, good," Rei breathed in relief, interrupting Minako's nervous chatter.

"Good?"

"You sounded so wistful and I thought… and with Ami and Mako last year, I just… Well. I was afraid you'd want to, too? And I just honestly don't think we're ready, and besides-"

"Hey, hey, it's fine. You don't have to stutter your way through quite so many awkward explanations, firecracker. Me, with a baby? Who in the world thinks that could ever in a million years be a good idea?"

"Well, you didn't seem so averse to the idea before…"

"Obviously at some point I realised that once you get one of those they tend to stick around for a while. No, what the two of us are meant for is to be the cool aunts, ruining everybody else's kids with impunity. It's our Important Mission!"

Rei's relieved smile turned into full-blown laughter.

"Fine, then," she snorted, pulling Minako along once more, "Now let's get going, cool aunt Minako. Wouldn't want you to be late for your debriefing."

They made their way down the mostly empty crystal-lined streets, eyes full of reflected sunlight, and Minako quietly marvelled at how little had actually changed in her absence. Crystal Tokyo seemed to live and breathe at a dramatically slower pace than any city in the old world had, in so many ways nothing at all like the whirlwind of a metropolis they'd all once known and loved. It had been hundreds of years, but it had also been less than five, and thinking about that too hard was enough to mess with anyone's mind, really. So, as they finally entered the shade of the Crystal Palace's many hallways, Minako chose to focus on something far more immediate and comprehensible.

"Come here, you," she murmured as she grabbed Rei's hand and yanked her into a conveniently shadowed corner of a conveniently deserted corridor. Rei grumbled something that was probably supposed to be taken as disagreement, but went along quite willingly - much to Minako's unconcealed delight.

"Shouldn't you be delivering your important diplomatic report right about now?" Rei managed to squeeze out between kisses.

"The report can wait. It's not like there's much in it - Alpha Centauri is boring as all hell. Watching paint dry - or one of Michiru's blue period art films, even - is more fun than what those people get up to," Minako had a surprisingly pliable Rei fully backed up against the wall by now, with little to no space to move, "I have something that captures my attention much better, right here."

Her arm quickly snaked around Rei's waist, holding her close and almost clinging to her. A quiet _I missed you so much_ was barely comprehensibly mumbled into Rei's shoulder.

"I can tell," Rei whispered back, completely failing to keep an entirely too goofy grin from taking over her face and ruining whatever image she had. The grin grew even wider when she felt the door handle of a very convenient storage closet dig into her back, and inspiration struck.

Minako found her meditative moment and desperate attempt to calm the absurd mess of emotions washing over her interrupted by a sudden tumble into darkness and the sound of a door sliding shut.

"Rei, what are you-" she was quickly cut off by a finger placed over her lips and firm hands on her shoulders guiding her to lean back against the mostly empty shelves. And then Rei was on her _knees_, and…

It all felt so very, very good Minako didn't even slightly question the sudden burst of light that burned even through her closed eyelids.

"My, how the tables have turned."

Dawning realisation and recognition of who had spoken brought any previously built-up amorous mood crashing around both their ears. Rei was gaping, frozen, and about as red as her beloved high heels. Minako saw it was entirely up to her to make a valiant attempt at defusing the situation.

"Well," she quipped, cheerfully, "you sure have a long memory."

"You could say it comes with the job," Sailor Pluto replied, looking perfectly calm, very unimpressed, and effortlessly imposing. "Come now, Minako. The two of you can continue this later, I'm sure. The King seemed worried you might get a bit mixed up with all the time zone changes and run late for the scheduled debriefing, so he asked me to look in on you on my way there."

"Ugh, that sneaky, meddling-," Minako cut herself off before she blurted out something inflammatory, and ruefully extricated herself from a still mortified Rei. "How did you find- you know what, never mind. Let's just go and get it over with."

Sailor Venus was the one who stumbled out of the closet – still on slightly wobbly legs, but determined and focused. She paused only to bend down and brush her lips gently across Rei's forehead, murmuring a very loaded and promising _Later_. She then turned to follow Pluto down the winding corridors leading to the conference chamber, in an altogether much more sombre and contemplative mood.

"How have you been lately?" Pluto tried, very tentatively, after a few dozen steps made in complete silence.

"Fine. Listen, it's okay, no big deal. I was the one shirking boring aspects of my job to make out in a closet and it was obviously my fault for losing my head like a hormonal teenager, you don't have to be so awkward about it. Let's go and be done with all the official stuff."

"If you say so, Venus."

Sometimes she felt like it was so easy to slip into the identity of Sailor Venus, and it felt like Minako Aino was being peeled off like a used pair of socks. She'd been many things in this life (not to mention several others), but she'd always been certain of her undoubted Minakoness. The ease with which it sometimes faded off nowadays and the growing difficulty in fully tuning back into it where there had previously been none was one of the few things Minako found truly frightening.

Dealing with the idea of losing one's self was never supposed to be easy, but, as far as Minako was concerned, no loss was going to happen - not if she had anything to say about the matter. So whenever she caught herself doing small things, such as referring to her untransformed self as Venus, she immediately corrected herself and took a moment to refocus and recenter her thoughts. Neither Pluto nor Setsuna, however, ever made that mistake with any of them – the split between their identities always very clearly and strictly outlined. There was food for thought there, and if there was something Minako loved, it was unravelling the mysteries surrounding her more reticent senshi.

"You know what, I have something to ask you," Venus decided it was high time to seriously start with Pluto, diligently mining her memories of the Silver Millennium for interesting conversation hooks.

"Oh? I shall do my best to answer."

"Ok, then, time to come clean. Mars and I- well… Venus, or at least the two of us from back then, we wondered about this all the time back… back in the days of the old kingdom- ugh, this is all so frustratingly complicated to talk about, I have no idea how you deal! Anyway. Back to what I actually wanted to ask. Did you or did you not slow time during those incredibly boring and pointless report meetings, in order to be by the Queen's side for longer?"

Pluto stopped for a moment, blinking. She had clearly not been expecting the direction the conversation was apparently taking, and so needed a moment to adjust.

"I did no such thing!" she retorted then, almost indignantly, "Time is not a thing to be trifled with, ever."

"Alright, alright, fine, you didn't. Sure felt like it a lot of the times, though."

"That, Venus, is a fascinating phenomenon known as boredom. But I have a question for you, in a similar vein," was Pluto actually _smirking_ at her right now? Venus couldn't help but shiver. "Did the Venus of that time ever deliberately broadcast lust all around her, especially during those very same meetings in order to entice the Queen to end the proceedings early?"

"…no? Uh, not intentionally, anyway, not as far as I recall."

"Really," Pluto seemed genuinely surprised at this answer - not a look often seen on her, so Venus gladly took careful note of it.

"I was… quite certain. Well. Perhaps some unwitting power leakage, a subconscious thing, happens to all of us occasionally…"

"And what makes you so sure there was funny business going on?"

"Well," and Pluto seemed flustered now, even - today was obviously Venus' lucky day, "the Queen was always rather… ardent and… motivated. Afterwards." there was a mumble following that, sounding a lot like _icannotbelieveiamtalkingaboutthis_. Venus' grin widened dangerously.

"A woman dealing with the long absences of her lover. Of course she's going to be excited to finally see you. And make the most of you. Oh, no, my dear Pluto. That one's all on you."

Oh, yes, Pluto was definitely blushing. Venus grinned, basking in the feeling of immense personal satisfaction. Once, what now felt a long time ago, she'd made Pluto laugh out loud. And now this – her list of achievements was truly ever-growing, and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.

"Thank you for giving me such a _wonderful _idea, though."


End file.
